Huguely appeals case, cites procedural errors

Former University student George Huguely’s new attorneys filed a motion Tuesday requesting a new trial through the Virginia Court of Appeals. Huguely, a former University lacrosse player, was convicted last year of the second-degree murder of girlfriend Yeardley Love. His legal team, Paul Clement and Craig Cooley, argued in their appeal that Huguely was given an unfair trial.

The appeal cites specific procedural errors that occurred during Huguely’s 2012 trial. Tuesday’s petition differs from the appeal filed by his attorneys in September, which sought to appeal his murder conviction.

On March 4, 2011, Boehner announced plans to convene the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG) to consider whether the House of Representatives should defend DOMA section 3 in place of the Department of Justice, and on March 9 the committee voted 3–2 to do so.

On April 18, 2011, House leaders announced they had selected former United States Solicitor General Paul Clement to represent BLAG, and Clement, without opposition from other parties to the case, filed a motion to be allowed to intervene in the suit "for the limited purpose of defending the constitutionality of Section III" of DOMA. On April 25, 2011, King & Spalding, the law firm through which Clement was handling the case, announced it was dropping the case. On the same day, Clement resigned from King & Spalding in protest and joined Bancroft PLLC, which took on the case. The House's initial contract with Clement capped legal fees at $500,000, but on September 30 a revised contract raised the cap to $1.5 million. A spokesman for Boehner explained that BLAG would not appeal in all cases, citing bankruptcy cases that are "unlikely to provide the path to the Supreme Court....ffectively defending does not require the House to intervene in every case, especially when doing so would be prohibitively expensive."

RICHMOND -- Lawyers for George Huguely V, convicted of the slaying of Yeardley Love at the University of Virginia where the two were students, asked the judges of the Virginia Court of Appeals this morning to expand his appeal.
....

The appeals court has already said it will consider Huguely’s appeal on two grounds: that the trial should not have moved forward over Huguely's objections when a defense attorney was sick with the stomach flu and concerns about a potentially biased juror.

This morning the front row of the appeals court’s tiny courtroom was occupied by members of Huguely’s family as Paul D. Clement, one of his lawyers, asked a three-judge panel of the court to consider other arguments, as well.

Among other things, Huguely’s lawyers want to challenge the sufficiency of the evidence required to prove malice; the suitability of several other jurors; and whether his trial lawyers should have been told by prosecutors that a $30 million civil suit was in the offing once the criminal trial was over.